Going, going, Gone
by Rosethorn Li
Summary: - Tsunade/Jiraiya interaction, mentions of Orochimaru - Light - Tsunade and Jiraiya survive, no matter what. When the Sannin were a team, during the war.


**Going, going, Gone**  
Tsunade and Jiraiya survive. No matter what. When the Sannin were a _team_, during the war.  
**By: Rosethorn Li**

* * *

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" Jiraiya asked when he first saw her, grinning for the life of him. As if this wasn't a war zone. As if they were meeting for the first time.

"Shut up, you pervert," Tsunade shot back, no heat behind her words. She couldn't find the strength to hit him, as she normally would to a comment like that. If her teammate noticed, he didn't say anything.

His smiled didn't fade. "C'mon, princess, is that any way to great your hero?"

"You aren't my hero." She shifted, tried to stand, and winced at the pain that shot through her leg. No use; that last Earth jutsu had missed her midriff but damaged her thigh. There would be bruises, in the morning, if she couldn't find it in her to heal them.

At the moment, she was low on chakra, and the little she had left couldn't be spent in such a futile way. It wasn't like her leg was broken. She could stand, with help.

Jiraiya pouted. "Princess, you wound me."

Tsunade shot him a look, but his only response was to grin again, though she noticed it didn't reach his eyes.

Hooking an arm around her, Jiraiya pulled his teammate to her feet, settling her arm across his shoulders. Leaning heavily on his broad form, Tsunade took a few trial steps, Jiraiya matching her pace for pace. They developed a rhythm step by step, and comfortably began to cover ground.

Feeling something warm and gentle brush against the edge of her ribs, Tsunade tensed. Jiraiya made a snorting sound uncomfortably close to her ear; she didn't need to turn her head to see the perverted grin on his face.

"Don't you even _dare_," she ground out, a twitch forming above her eye. Chakra depleted, injured and tired, and she still had to deal with that pervert's antics.

"But they're right _there_," he whined, itching to crop a feel. Jiraiya's fingers snuck closer of their own accord, brushing against the curve of her breast.

That was it for Tsunade.

"Do it and I'll beat you within an inch of your life!" she threatened, fist forming behind his head. If only she could punch him good and hard…

"Scowling like that is bad for your health. Your face might get stuck that way! What would Dan think then?" There was a teasing note in the man's voice that only fueled her irritation.

"Why, you!" Tsunade took a swing at his head (which, even without her enhanced strength, would hurt), forgetting a moment that she couldn't stand on her own, and lost her precarious balance.

Jiraiya caught her, with a grunt, before she could fall too far, but the reminder that she had to rely on him now was still there.

Back on her feet and settled again into a comfortable, Tsunade broke the silence that had fallen between them by asking, "Where's Orochimaru?"

"Taking care of the rest of them." Jiraiya kept his eyes on the road ahead.

"Oh."

There had been too many of them for her to take care of alone, easily a platoon of the enemy nin on her side. They had split up to cover more ground, and mission orders said to terminate any foreign threats; she hadn't had a choice but to take them down.

And she had, but not without a bit of pain.

It was nothing serious, a scratch by war-time standards, but the leg wound still inhibited her ability as a ninja.

Jiraiya had found her, sprawled and bloody (not all her blood), what seemed like years after the last enemy finally had the decency to just die. Damn persistent bastards.

She probably looked like crap, being dragged over his arm like a dead body.

Tsunade couldn't bring herself to care.

"Orochimaru. He'll be okay?" Maybe she was delirious, doubting the genius, but--

"He'll be fine," Jiraiya said, as certain fact, with none of the jealousy that had once colored his voice when speaking about their teammates abilities. They'd been together through enough, now, that doubting the abilities of another (in this case, the inevitability for Orochimaru to come back alive) was unthought-of.

"Think he'll save some for us?"

A gulf of laughter broke forth from her walking crutch, sounding rusty and a bit choked. None of them had laughed for a long time. "That selfish bastard? He's probably kept all the action for himself!"

Tsunade smiled against her teammate's chest as it rose and fell in another gasping laugh.

_Maybe there is a use for him after all._


End file.
